


Sixty Three Percent

by Smartasslittlesteve



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Autistic!Buttons, Bangladeshi!Buttons, Brothers, Emotional Abuse, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mental Abuse, Mentioned Jack Kelly, Mentioned Medda Larkin, Physical Abuse, Post-child abuse, Self Harm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-05 08:31:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17915393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smartasslittlesteve/pseuds/Smartasslittlesteve
Summary: In Buttons defence, he didn’t expect anyone to be awake at 1 am. At least that's what he kept telling himself even as Spot cleaned his wounds.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [My_Coffee_Is_Hot_Chocolate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/My_Coffee_Is_Hot_Chocolate/gifts).



     In Buttons defence, he didn’t expect anyone to be awake at 1 am. At least that's what he kept telling himself even as Spot cleaned his wounds.

 

     Buttons came home miserable, dragging himself to the room he shared with Jack without so little as a hello to his adoptive mom Medda. He had nearly failed a history test that afternoon and nothing could get rid of the burning pain of failure that had rooted itself in his chest when he saw the 63%. He buried himself in bed and did his best to drown out the voice of his father in his head, telling him he was worthless, pathetic, and the even louder nagging that he knew what to do, he could deal with his own punishment for being such a failure. He eventually cried himself to sleep, which lead him to now.

 

     He had woken up at midnight, trying to roll over and go back to sleep, to ignore the urge to hurt himself the way he was taught, after an hour he finally gave in, climbing out of bed as quietly as he could and creeping to the bathroom.

 

     Spot woke to quiet footsteps outside of his room, he was tempted to ignore it and go back to sleep, but he could help feeling something was wrong. After maybe two minutes of laying in bed, he decided to go investigate, opening his door and seeing the light spilling into the hallway from the bathroom door. After a moment of standing there, still trying to wake up, he heard a soft whimper that was unmistakeably Buttons. 

 

     “B, what’re ya doin?” He slurred groggily as he got to the bathroom, freezing in horror when he saw the razor in his brothers trembling fingers.

 

     “I-I was bad,” Buttons tried to explain.

 

     “Let’s get you cleaned up okay,” Spot said softly, taking the blade out of Buttons’ hands and setting it on the counter, sitting him down on the toilet and pulling out the antiseptic wipes and bandages. “This’ll sting a little,” he dabbed at the red lines on the other boy's skin, the deep colour of his skin making Spot look even paler than normal. Buttons flinched instinctively, trying to keep himself from crying. After minutes of pain filled silence Spot applied the last bandage, throwing out its wrapper and leaning back a bit on the bathtub where he was sitting.

 

     “ ‘m sorry,” Buttons bit his lip, looking at the floor.

 

     “Chew this, not your lip,” Spot reminded him, tapping the chew necklace around the younger boys neck. Buttons glanced at him for a second before looking away again, hesitantly bringing the stim toy to his mouth. “Why were you…?” Spot trailed off, unable to bring himself to finish the sentence.

 

     “I got a bad mark, and I’m old enough to deal with my own punishments,” 

 

     “Benji, no, everyone gets a bad mark, you don’t need to, to hurt yourself,” Spot held his arms open asking if Buttons needed a hug, and quickly got his answer when Buttons practically threw himself at him, wrapping him in a hug almost tight enough to make him lose his breath. 

 

     “C’mon, let's go to bed,” Spot said once Buttons pulled away.

     “Can you...I mean, can I stay with you?” Buttons asked, seeming smaller and more afraid then he had in months. 

     “Of course Ben, anything you need,”


	2. Chapter 2

     “I’m sorry,” Buttons repeated, curled up in bed next to Spot, refusing to even look at him.

     “Why?” he whispered in the softest voice imaginable “why would you do that to yourself?”

     “I got a bad mark,” Buttons shrugged like it was obvious.

     “Everyone gets a bad mark sometimes, why would you…?”

     “He taught me to,” 

     Spot felt the weight of the world hit him at once. His father taught him to hurt himself.  That asshole taught the sweetest person he had ever met, to hurt himself. He was livid. “He what,”

    “When I was like eleven, he decided I was old enough to start punishing myself, so he started doing it on me, then let me choose the blade, then let me do it myself. It was the only time he had ever said he was proud of me, so I started doing it more and more for every little thing, drawing more lines every time trying to get him to be proud of me, and it’s so so hard to stop,” Buttons cried softly, hiding his face in Spots chest as the tears streamed down his cheeks.

     “That’s awful B, I’m so so sorry he did that, but we’re gonna get through this, and someday, you’re going to look back with pride when you think about how many years you’ve been clean,”

**Author's Note:**

> This was a doozy to write if yall want a second part going more into why Buttons did what he did and his backstory leave a comment and I'll write it


End file.
